I Will Always Come Back to You
by ducky76
Summary: Xana's escape led to a worldwide war. Ulrich is a soldier fighting against him and he goes MIA and is assumed dead. His fiance Yumi won't accept it, because he promised to return. Is it possible that he's still alive? YU JA some OSi


**This takes place after the end of season two when Xana steals the keys to Lyoko and escapes. The chapters won't be as long as this first one. The reason this one is so long is because I wanted to write the history leading up to the war before I started the actual story. I used some of the information that the show gave about Franz Hopper's history to write a lot of it. I think the history part is pretty boring, but a lot of it is vital to the story. And I know that the names of the two sides of the war aren't really that good, but I really didn't feel like coming up with good ones. Anyway, the second half of this chapter is the real story.**

**Here's the gang's birthdates for this story, so that you can get an idea of their ages:**

**Ulrich's DOB: 11/11/89**

**Yumi's DOB: 2/18/89**

**Odd's DOB: 9/2/90**

**Jeremie's DOB: 1/23/90**

**Aelita's false DOB: 4/5/90**

**Aelita's real DOB: 4/5/82**

**Read and review!

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In 1991, the military commissioned the scientist Dr. Franz Hopper, who had recently become a widower and a single father, to head Project Xana as a means of disrupting enemy communications. At first unaware of the risk of his mission, Hopper accepted the job, but as time passed, he began to feel suspicion that someone was watching his every move much more closely than he liked. After months of his suspicions being further raised and confirmed, Hopper realized the danger of his creation and knew it must be his task to destroy what he had created.

However, this task could not be done so easily, especially not now that his job was being monitored so closely by both the military and whoever these unknown person or persons were. Hopper devised a plan to lock Carthage within another creation that he would explain to the military as part of Project Carthage. This new creation was a virtual world, which he called Lyoko. Along with Lyoko, Hopper created and Artificial Intelligence to serve as a guard for anyone meaning to find and use Carthage for its intended purposes, though the AI, Xana, was more virus than guardian.

Within the confines of his virtual world, Hopper locked the Carthage program away with codes, firewalls, and even "monsters" as guards under the command of Xana. If anyone wanted to use Carthage, they would have to get past a hell of a lot to access it, and even through fighting in Lyoko they would then need the keys, which Franz Hopper kept only on a floppy disc that he hid from the military.

In June of 1994, Hopper made another huge breakthrough in his work in discovering that with Lyoko he had also created a way to return to the past. He cautiously tested this feature out a few times before becoming less wary of it. This feature fortunately came in handy less than a month later, when on July 5, 1994, his mysterious stalkers were exposed as spies that had hidden themselves in the military to leak information to an outside agency that Hopper was unfamiliar with. They revealed themselves after having discovered that the real treasure was not it Carthage but in Lyoko itself with its amazing capabilities.

These "men in black," as Hopper's daughter later recognized them as, were clearly much more treacherous than the real military officials that had commissioned Hopper, and Project Carthage and Lyoko would be great dangers in their hands. Hopper used his newly discovered feature to return to the past and prevent the event of their discovering the truth of Lyoko's purpose and capabilities. The next day Hopper chose to repeat numerous times in order to give him unlimited time to discover more about these mysterious men and to finish Lyoko. He relived July 6, 1994 so many times that he managed to fit at least 5 ½ years of work into that one day.

During these 5 ½ years, he managed to build three scanners to allow access to his virtual world in a way that he had not originally intended. Lyoko had been created much more as an advanced military strategic program than a video game, but with the making of the three scanners, Hopper took it to video game and beyond. The scanners allowed a human being to be completely virtualized, to the point where their material body was physically gone from Earth. Hopper also created control towers in the various sectors of Lyoko that would allow a being virtualized into Lyoko to access files and information. Hopper was making Lyoko a place that was, essentially, livable, excepting the fact that being virtual required none of the drinking, eating, or breathing that living does.

It was also during these repeated days that he was able to secretly get his daughter, 12-year-old Aelita, into the secret Factory lab and to hide the keys to Lyoko within her and himself. On the very last time that he relived the day, Hopper was prepared to make an escape with his daughter so that they could live together in Lyoko forever. July 7, 1994 was that day that the men in black attacked the Hermitage, the home of the Hopper family. Hopper and his daughter eluded the men and were virtualized into Lyoko.

However, Xana's design, made in a rush by Hopper, was a brilliantly flawed one. Xana did not differentiate between its creator's enemies and its creator himself. All life forms that were virtualized onto Lyoko from Earth became the enemies of Xana and the secret it was intended to guard. However, the keys to Lyoko that were contained within both Franz Hopper and his daughter Aelita protected them both from being completely obliterated by Xana. Still, Xana was not just an AI with a preset amount of data sufficient to its programming; it had an actual mind apt for learning in an almost human manner.

Xana began to watch people on Earth who had never been virtualized, and eventually, this watching became attacking. Xana's original programming as a defense of Lyoko was overridden, and it utilized an offensive approach in the prevention of the infiltration of Lyoko. It was clear to Hopper that he had created a monster in his vain attempt to disguise another of his "monsters." From within Lyoko, he had to stop Xana, but Xana forced Franz into hiding in the places of Lyoko where even Xana and Aelita had no access to. Aelita, for fear of being forced away like her father,

It was in October of 2002 that the lab was discovered by young Jeremie Belpois and three friends Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, and Odd Della Robbia. The four teens formed an alliance and strong friendship with Aelita, who was still preserved in the state of a 12-year-old girl and had by then lost all memories of her past as a human. The five children fought Xana together while trying to find a way to materialize Aelita, whom they believed to be an AI herself.

In January of 2004, Jeremie finally found a way to bring Aelita to Earth and gave her the name Aelita Stones, but Xana interfered at the last minute and stole part of her code and memories, keeping her life bound to Lyoko so that the virtual world could not be shut down by the teenagers. On reviewing the data of Aelita's memories, the computer program discovered that the keys to Lyoko were hidden within them. Xana's efforts to wreak havoc on Earth merely became bait to get Aelita back onto Lyoko so that it could steal all of her memories and allow itself to escape.

In June of 2004, Xana was successful in this goal and became free of its restrictions to Lyoko. Upon escaping, Xana made itself scarce to the five teens who had expected a major attack to happen almost immediately. In this time, Xana formed an alliance with the men in black, who by then had many men ranked much higher up in the government.

The four teenagers got wind of this and did some more research into these men. They discovered that they were a secret organization that called itself the Order, and that they planned to incite a war among the world powers so that their organization could rise in power and command this war. With Xana on their side, they would surely be unstoppable and come to power, even though they did not realize that while Xana gave them great power they were merely pawns for it's disposal in its greater plan to destroy mankind.

It took five months for Xana to completely resurface after its apparent disappearance. No longer aiming to escape its prison in Lyoko, it didn't bother with the five teenagers who had once been its primary targets of attack. It set its sights on important political figures, and these attacks became the beginnings of what would be known years later as the War for Mankind. By August of 2005, the first countries to declare war upon each other were France and Great Britain, and by the start of 2006 the war had escalated so much that nearly every world power was somehow involved.

On March 15, 2006, the Order of Xana revealed itself, and Xana was sporting the new body of a man. The Order proved itself a vicious group with devastating powers beyond belief. Xana addressed the people of the world on April 24 of that same year, warning everyone that from that point on there would be only one power in the world and that it was not any single country. The Order of Xana, according to him, would never be defeated and any person who wanted to live through this war would surely join the Order. And millions of cowards did join the Order.

However, by December of 2005 the group of teenagers, now a group of six with the addition of Odd Della Robbia's girlfriend Sissi Delmas, had materialized Franz Hopper. Feeling responsible for his creation, Hopper became the leader of the Resistance. He made the Factory his headquarters for the Resistance and the city that Kadic Academy and the Factory resided in became the first city inhabited only by Resistance members and supporters. People worldwide were no longer separated by the borders of their countries but by a decision to be on the side of the Order or the Resistance. There were people who chose neutrality, but they most often became casualties of Xana's attacks because they lacked a means of defense.

The Resistance suffered a great loss on July 19 of 2006 when Franz Hopper was assassinated by an agent of the Order. A close colleague of Hopper's, Gauthier D'Arcy, took over as the leader of the Resistance. Over the next year, there were many more losses. Ulrich Stern's mother was murdered by a member of the Order. Odd Della Robbia's entire family, including his two 5-year-old sisters, was lined up against a wall in an alleyway and shot. Yumi Ishiyama's father and younger brother were both killed in the same explosion that took the life of Sissi Delmas and many others.

Xana also made direct attacks on the most essential future members of the Resistance, the teenagers that had already had the experience of fighting him. His first attack was an attempt on the life of Jeremie Belpois, as he could prove to be the most valuable to the Resistance, but Jeremie fortunately escaped with his life. There were a few attacks on Aelita Hopper, Yumi Ishiyama, and Ulrich Stern, but none were successful. However, Xana did succeed in his attack on Odd Della Robbia. Jeremie and Hopper had locked away all of the data on Lyoko about its warriors from Xana, but the AI managed to find a way to get minimal access to Odd's file. He got just enough access to corrupt the file with a virus, one that became active in Odd the next instant that he entered Lyoko. The virus affected his physical body outside of Lyoko, making him very sick. His illness could not be cured outside of Lyoko, so until Jeremie or Aelita could find a way to fix his file, Odd was extremely incapable of becoming physically involved in the war.

Schools all over the world were deserted over time, and even Kadic Academy was losing many of its students and teachers. Fortunately, the fact that Kadic was part of the most secure Resistance-inhabited city in the world kept education from coming to a complete halt. Jeremie Belpois and Aelita Stones graduated high school a year early with Yumi Ishiyama's class, and the pair became the two most important members of D'Arcy's strategists and advisors. Yumi Ishiyama planned to join the Resistance Army as soon as her boyfriend Ulrich graduated high school and could join with her.

And in February, 2008, Ulrich Stern dropped out of high school just months before graduation to join the Resistance Army without her…

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It was March 12, 2008. Yumi Ishiyama, now nineteen years old, stared hopelessly out of the window in her living room as it rained outside of her home. She glanced at the clock. 3:03. His bus to the camp was leaving at 4:00. Where was he? He had promised her that he would be there to say goodbye.

Yumi only moved from her spot when she heard her mother calling her from the kitchen to take the basin of cold water she'd just poured into Odd's bedroom for her. The young blond had been living with the Ishiyama's ever since his illness had begun. Mrs. Ishiyama, now widowed and without her young son to care for, had insisted that Odd live under her care. It clearly gave the woman some sort of small happiness to be able to care for someone, even if only because it caused a distraction from the memories of what she had lost. She had always been fond of Odd as her daughter's friend, and she warmly gave him the best care he could ask for.

Yumi walked into the kitchen to see that her mother was busy making some miso soup. She walked over to the table and tried to pick up the heavy basin, when her mother spoke. "Yumi?"

"Yes Mama?" Yumi responded in a respectful voice.

Mrs. Ishiyama looked at her with a frown, as if deep in thought, for a moment. She sighed in defeat, by her own thoughts, Yumi supposed. "I don't really think it's a good idea for you to be carrying that," she said as she went to pick it up herself. "Can you finish the soup while I take this to his room?"

Yumi raised an eyebrow at her mother. "You want _me_ to cook?" she asked incredulously. Yumi could not cook even the simplest of things.

Again, Mrs. Ishiyama sighed in defeat. "I swear," she muttered as she began to walk down the hall with the basin. "You don't have a bit of motherly instinct in you…"

"Oh I will have plenty of motherly instinct," Yumi replied as she followed her mother. "I just lack the skills of a housewife."

Mrs. Ishiyama made no recognition of this comment. "Get a washcloth from the closet," she said.

Yumi did as she was told and brought the washcloth into the room that had once belonged to her brother Hiroki. Her mother had set the basin on a bedside table. "I'm going to go finish the soup," Mrs. Ishiyama said. "Take care of him. Poor dear isn't feeling very well today."

Yumi nodded as he mother left the room. She pulled a chair up beside Odd's bed and sat down, soaking the washcloth in the cold water. "Hey," she said in a gentle voice. "How are you feeling, kiddo?"

Odd smiled a bit even though his cheeks were tinged pink with fever. "Still won't lay off the kid jokes will you?" he teased.

Yumi gave him a soft smile. "Maybe if you'd stop acting like my kid brother," she replied slyly. "Or maybe if you had grown since the 5th grade."

Odd pretended to take offense. "I'll have you know that I am a very respectable height of 5'7"." But he had no time to laugh at his joke or his small height as he had a coughing fit.

Yumi looked at Odd worriedly. Despite how thin he was from being ill, on his better days he could be nearly as lively and happy as he'd been in good health. However, today was clearly one of the bad days, and on the bad days he could appear and feel as sick as someone dying of cancer. His worst days found him in a feverish and delirious state, mumbling almost incoherently about his family and about Sissi. Those days his friends often feared that he really was going to die.

Yet, somehow he always lived through those days. Yumi often wondered if he would outlive them all, even in his state of poor health. And the thought had crossed her mind before that he very well might, because the war was such that every person was at risk of dying on any given day. Perhaps, Yumi thought, the fact that Odd's illness kept him from the actual war was a blessing.

And still, with thoughts like these, Yumi always felt badly for Odd. His bad health certainly did keep him out of danger of direct attack, but he was suffering worse than most people and he wanted so much to fight to avenge all of the loved ones he had lost. Yumi knew that it was selfish of her to be glad that he was kept out of the fighting, but she just wanted all of the people she loved to be safe.

When Odd's coughing had subsided, Yumi began to dab his face and neck gently with the cold washcloth. He pushed her hand away though. "I'm fine," he said seriously. "You don't have to."

Yumi shook her head and continued with her task. "Mama is making you some miso soup," she told him.

Odd remained silent, closing his eyes. Seeing this, Yumi looked at the clock in his room. 3:14. And from looking out the window she could tell that he still had not come.

"He'll be here." Yumi looked at Odd inquiringly to see him watching her. "He promised," he said. "He wouldn't break a promise, especially not one he made to the person he loves most."

"I don't want him to go Odd," Yumi said miserably, her eyes filling with tears. "It's not safe."

"Nothing is safe anymore, Yumi," Odd said. "At least he will be helping to do something about that."

Yumi quickly wiped her eyes, to rid them of the tears. Tears made her feel so weak, yet in the past years she had found little that did not make her come near to tears.

"Here he comes now," Odd said.

Yumi turned quickly to look back out the window. Sure enough, a taxi was pulling up in front of her house, with Ulrich in the back. Yumi flew from the room and ran out of the door in the rain. She picked up her long skirt so that it would not drag in the mud and cursed maternity for condemning her to wear such awful clothing. As soon as Ulrich had stepped out of the taxi in uniform, she threw her arms around his neck and tears fell down her cheeks, mingling with the raindrops. "I thought that you weren't coming," she said softly.

Ulrich pulled away and looked at her with confusion. "How could you ever think that I wouldn't come to see you?" he asked.

"I'm just so scared about you leaving," she told him.

Ulrich held his hand to her cheek and kissed her. "Let's go inside," he told her as he led her to the door. "I told the driver to wait for me to come out."

Once inside, Mrs. Ishiyama, having just finished the soup, fussed over the soaked couple. She gave them each a towel to dry off with, and scolded Yumi for such foolishness as running into the rain to greet him. "You had better not endanger my grandson by getting yourself sick," she said. "God knows we already have enough illness in this house. That poor dear…"

Ulrich looked at Yumi questioningly. "How is he today?" he asked.

Yumi shrugged, but the look on her face betrayed that fact that she was worried. "He's been better, and he's been worse."

"I have to go say goodbye to him," Ulrich said.

"No need, Private. I'm right here."

The couple turned to see Odd leaning heavily against the wall to support him as he stood. They both rushed over to aid him. "You should be in bed," Yumi told him.

"I wanted to come out here and say goodbye," he told her. "I've already seen enough of that bedroom room for Ulrich today."

"How are you?" Ulrich asked with concern.

"I'll be fine," Odd said, brushing off the subject. "How are _you_? Military man now, huh? It's kind of scary. I have to say that the uniform does look better on you than it would have on me. Then again, who knows? I won't even be eighteen for another 6 months. Maybe by the time I'm of age Einstein and the Princess will have figured this out for me."

Ulrich gave him a small but encouraging smile. "Yes, I bet they will." He put the hand that wasn't supporting Odd by his arm on Odd's shoulder. "But are you sure the military will even let you in? There might be a height restriction."

"Ah, everyone is a comedian today," Odd said sarcastically. He then gave Ulrich a serious look. "Really, Ulrich, take care of yourself, ok?"

Ulrich nodded. "And you do the same. I'll miss you man."

"Me too," Odd said.

"Take care of these two for me, will you?" Ulrich asked as he gestured toward Yumi.

Odd smiled. "Of course."

"Ok," Mrs. Ishiyama interrupted as she grabbed Odd's arm. "Time for Odd to get back into bed." She supported the blond and led him down the hall and into the bedroom, where his soup was waiting to be eaten.

Ulrich and Yumi turned back to each other. He took one of her hands into his as he tucked a stray piece of her raven hair behind her ear. "Are you going to be ok while I'm away?" he asked.

"I'll manage," Yumi told him in a very small voice. "I'll just be missing you like crazy every second you're away."

"I'm going to miss you even more than that," Ulrich told his fiancé. He kissed the tip of her nose before crouching down to her large stomach and placing his palm on it. "And I'm going to miss this little guy too. I'm going to write you every day."

"Oh Ulrich," Yumi said as tears filled her eyes again. "Why do you have to leave now?"

"You know why," he told her as he stood back up. "The war isn't going well and we're short on soldiers. I have to-"

"You're putting yourself in danger," Yumi protested, looking at the ground. "And Wyatt is going to be born in two months… What if you never-"

"Don't say that," Ulrich interrupted, putting a hand over her lips. "I will. I'll come back. I'll see our baby boy and we'll get married." He lifted her chin and made her look at him. "I promise Yumi. _I will always come back to you_."

"I love you," Yumi whispered.

"I love you too." Ulrich kissed Yumi passionately, wanting desperately to stay with her forever. But he knew what he had to do.

Yumi pulled away and stared into his eyes as he wiped her tears from her cheeks. "I have to go now," he told her. "The bus station I'm leaving from is 25 minutes away and I can't be late." Yumi nodded in silence as he kissed her forehead. "Goodbye."

Yumi watched him walk away. Before he walked out, he turned around and waved at her with a sad look on his face. As the door shut behind him, another tear slid down her cheek. "Goodbye…" she whispered.


End file.
